Christmas Cheer
by Loony Loomy
Summary: Wirt wakes up early on Christmas morning to the sounds of his brother's excitement.


**This is just a simple story I wrote quickly to say happy Christmas! And to make up for talking about an AU where Greg drowned, because that didn't seem very festive. Sorry about that. Anyway, hope you all have a good Christmas, love you all!**

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><p>Wirt heard the scrabbling of his little brother early on Christmas morning, rushing to their parents' room to wake them up and get to unwrapping presents as soon as possible. He stretched out some of his lingering tiredness and smiled, feeling like the eagerness was permeating the air and filling him up with festive cheer.<p>

He got out of bed and opened his door to see Greg rushing towards him. Greg slowed down only enough to prevent himself from bowling his brother over, instead suddenly leaving Wirt with an excitable bundle of energy in his arms. "Early mornings sure do make you happy, huh?"

"It's Christmas! It's Christmas! Wirt, today's Christmas Day!"

"I _know_, Greg. I've been looking forward to it too."

"Yeah! We gotta open all our presents, right now, okay? They've been sitting there all night in the dark and I know _I_ wouldn't be a happy present if my owner didn't try to open me as soon as possible and show me they loved me."

"And the person who gave them. Santa Claus and his reindeers didn't do all that flying last night for nothing."

"Oh, right! Do you think he liked his scarf?"

"Well, duh. You're always gonna be needing more warm clothing if you're spending so much time outside in the middle of winter."

"Mmhmm, I bet there aren't many people that think to give him that," their mom said, walking out of her bedroom with his step-dad trailing behind. "Much better than mince pies or carrots."

"Woohoo!" Greg stuck both of his arms up; Wirt had to duck his head away to avoid them. He decided to move out of Greg's way so that they could go downstairs to the living room, taking them two at a time to try and keep up with his brother's hyperactive dash down.

Greg was breathing heavily by the time he sat down in front of the Christmas tree. The presents sat underneath like patient schoolchildren, all dressed up in their most colourful clothes. Wirt sat down cross-legged next to Greg. "Which one are you gonna open first?"

"Actually, um, I want you to open this one first," he said, his small fingers gripping around a roughly spherical gift with a less-than-perfect wrapping job.

"What's this?"

"It's a—! Wait, no, there's no point to wrapping paper if you're just gonna _ask_, Wirt," he explained, pushing the gift into Wirt's hands.

"No, I meant, is this…" His mom and step-dad settled down onto the sofa and watched on, and he wondered again whether this was their doing, or… He turned it around a couple of times, weighty and solid, before deciding to just open it. A grey and orange face painted on a rock looked up at him from the surrounding paper, two mismatched black dots for eyes and a dark grey dot underneath for…that must have been a beak. Beatrice. "You made this for me?"

Wirt met Greg's eyes, and he swore that the enthusiasm in them was stronger than he'd ever seen for opening his own presents. "Do you like it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I-I… I love it. It's wonderful, Greg. _You're_ wonderful." He felt unbearably like he wasn't expressing himself well enough, but the sunshine was beaming out of Greg's grin, and he laughed and hugged him to his chest and buried his face into his hair, and maybe that was the best way of expressing himself, anyway. He pulled away and continued, "You have to open mine, now, it's only fair. And then you can open all of Santa's."

Greg's face was open and cheerful, eyes widening as Wirt pulled out an undefinable shape from the pile of presents. It was flourished with ribbons and a bow, which Greg took care to remove neatly before tearing a large opening into the wrapping paper. A plush stalk-like thing popped out. Wirt couldn't help but be amused by Greg's scrunched-up face of confusion. He continued to rip it open until an elephant was revealed, at which point he gasped in delight and looked from it to Wirt to it again with a wide _o-_shaped mouth. He jumped up and bounced on the balls of his feet, showing it to his parents in return for sounds of approval and appreciation from both of them. "Wirt, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

He placed the elephant on top of Wirt's lap and made "pffthffffththff" noises—"He says thank you too."

"You're welcome, Greg," he said, petting the plush's head. "Wait, I meant—hey, maybe he should be called Greg, too? Then you'll know what it was like for me when Jason Thunderburker was called Wirt."

His brother looked like he was hit by an epiphany. "Hey, yeah! I'll learn the true meaning of common sense and self-identity."

"And here I was thinking it would lead to a lot of funny misunderstandings," his dad said, tilting his head at Greg.

"That too."

He turned back to Wirt and moved his elephant so its trunk bumped Wirt's nose. Wirt snorted and shook his head, but dutifully bumped his nose back. Then, he picked Greg the elephant up with both hands, placed it next to the Beatrice rock, and shuffled closer to Greg the little brother.

Greg and Wirt opened the rest of their presents under the watchful gaze of the pair, the bird leaning against the elephant in the same way Greg leaned against Wirt, sharing their joy between them.


End file.
